Csis Annual Lecture 2026 With Dr Ashleigh Nugent

Join us for this year's CSIS Annual Lecture with authorDr Ashleigh Nugent [http://www.ashleighnugent.com].Title:Rising from the Fires of Slavery.

How Music, Memory and a Mixed Identity Forged my Power and PurposeIn Act 1 of this lecture, I will set up the problem.

With the largest forced migration in the history of civilisation came an unthinkably brutal and protracted assault from people who shared one physical characteristic upon those who shared the opposite characteristic.

In the most simplistic terms, people who called themselves White enslaved and brutalised people they called Black.In Act 2 of the story, we will explore the confrontation.

The scene is set nearly a hundred and fifty years after Britain abolished slavery.

A boy is born between worlds.

With both Black and White ancestry, he is raised in a world where his White peers reject him.

But there must be reason to the riddle.

Then, in the intricate flavours of his fathers food, he senses something that feels like cohesion; in the whip crack of a reggae riff, something lifts his soul; in the staccato bars of his latest rap record, he seizes an opportunity to become complete.

Halfway through the story, the boy is rejected by his Black peers, and his identity dies in a Jamaican prison.The purpose of this lecture will be revealed in Act 3: the resolution.

For it is my contention that identities and histories like that of our protagonist provide an ideal analogy for the confusion that comes with living in a dying empire.

Moreover, in his story, we may find the key to overcoming the confusion, conflict, and division now rising in our society.

Because, though our hero was born to muddy waters, he grows to know that which all the great civilisations once realised: that muddy waters are always the most fertile.Speaker Bio:Dr.

Ashleigh Nugent is an author, performer, therapist and Founder/CEO of RiseUp [http://www.riseupcic.co.uk].

His publishing credits include poetry anthologies, academic journals and magazines.

He has also written for theatres and the Royal Society of Literature.

His debut novel Locks was published by Picador in 2023.

Ashleigh was awarded Artist of the Year in the Liverpool City Region Culture and Creativity Awards in 2021, and he is a special advisor at the Shakespeare North Playhouse.

He has worked all over the UK, in prisons, schools and community settings, teaching others how to take more control of their own stories.

In 2026, his charity, RiseUp, established a creative Community Hub in the heart of Huyton.